Crash Racing Review

Costas Stephanides’s Review

Keep your enemies close...

I??ll be honest and admit that I do own a DS purely for Mario Kart. It??s a great game on a not so mobile machine; the DS cannot make phone calls and won??t fit snugly into your pocket.

If you love karting on the go, then there??s a whole host of mobile phone games to choose from as an alternative to the DS; Crash Racing is one of the better ones.

The graphics are pretty good and there are a couple of nice touches. There are three main backgrounds which are well drawn and there is some good detail in the cars. The characters even turn their heads into the bends while cornering. Unfortunately the sound is very naff on the Nokia. They tease you with a sound option but all it gives you is a triumphant tune (or not) at the end of each race. Needless to say, sound is the one feature that always varies across the different handset manufacturers and Nokia seems to be the hardest to please.

Anyway, apart from the sound, Crash Racing is a pleasure to play. There??s the ubiquitous single race or tournament mode. Once you manage to win your first tournament, the next one is unlocked together with a new kart. In total there are three tournaments with three different courses in each. The first two tournaments are pretty easy but the final one is quite difficult so there??s plenty of replay value.

Each event is a three lap race against three other characters from the Crash series. Along with the usual power ups, you can merge with an adjacent kart to combine into a bigger, faster kart and it even shoots missiles! Teaming up with your opponent may not sound a great idea but it easily works in your favour. Use it to blast the opposition away or create a bit of a lead. It??s very easy to merge, when the light in the top left corner starts flashing, press 1 or 3 to merge with the kart next to you. The merge only last for a limited time and the light will flash when it??s time to split. You can force a split just by pressing 1 or 3 again. Generally, when you force a split, your kart will have a slight edge compared a natural split. Have a bit of fun with it and try splitting on corners or just before a power up and try and put your ??friend?? in trouble. There will be a slight delay before you can merge with a kart again; also there is no merging immediately after the start. If you time it right, it is possible to cross the finish line in a merged state. However, on each occasion, the computer kart was given top spot. There is no sharing in this game.

Controlling the kart will take some skill and practice. It auto-accelerates so it is only the steering that you have to worry about. The karts have a tendency to drift quite wildly so you have to plan your cornering very carefully. It??s not a good idea to zip across the track to get a power up as you will end up in the dirt. The more you play, the better you will get and no doubt you will find your own tactics for merging and splitting. Course times should be broken pretty frequently and it will be many races before you perform the ??dream lap??.

At this moment in time, it??s the best kart game out there for the mobile phone.